Melissa Parke, ICAN's Executive Director.

Picture courtesy of: ICAN

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August 15, 2025

The world can go nuclear-free: Exclusive interview with ICAN head

Irma Mecele in Nagasaki, Japan

15-year-old interviewed ICAN’s Melissa Parke on global disarmament efforts

Melissa Parke, the Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), believes that denuclearisation is an achievable aim for humanity.

“Nuclear weapons are made by human beings, so human beings can dismantle and eliminate them,” she told Harbingers’ Magazine in an exclusive interview.

Founded in 2007, ICAN is a global coalition advocating for the abolishment of nuclear weapons. Parke’s optimism comes despite rising geopolitical tensions, weakening safeguards and advances in military technology that experts say have triggered a “third nuclear age” – considered even more dangerous than the Cold War era.

From the Cold War to today

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union entered an arms race, building increasingly destructive weapons. By the mid-1980s, the world held around 70,000 nuclear weapons – far more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Today, there are nine nuclear-armed countries, six countries who host them and 34 who endorse them and others striving to develop their own arsenals. For example, a 2023 poll found that 71% of South Koreans supported developing a national nuclear program.

With artificial intelligence now integrated into weapon systems, the risks are growing. From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the 1979 US false alarm, nuclear destructions were only avoided because humans intervened. In the aftermath, treaties and safeguards were put in place to reduce risk.

Parke recalled how Mikhail Gorbachev, then-President of the Soviet Union, and US President Ronald Reagan met in the mid-1980s and agreed to deep cuts in their arsenals. Today, without similar safeguards for modernised weapons, the world could be one glitch away from disaster.

Arms control deadline looms

The future of arms control also remains uncertain. The New START, which is the last remaining agreement limiting US and Russian strategic arsenals, is set to expire in 2026.

End the nuclear threat until it ends us

by Irma Mecelė

in Nagasaki, Japan

“There is an urgent need for the two countries to negotiate disarmament as they still control 90% of all nuclear weapons,” Parke said.

But with no peace talks on the table, despite US President Donald Trump recently calling for a new agreement, uncertainty is growing. If the treaty ends, both countries would be free to expand their stockpiles without legal limits.

In April 2025, ICAN and two other Nobel laureates wrote a letter to the Russian and US presidents, urging them to “meet, talk and agree to disarm.” The stakes were already high: on January 28, 2025, the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic gauge of humanity’s proximity to global catastrophe, was set to 89 seconds before midnight, the closest it has ever been.

Building a nuclear-free future

Despite these dangers, the head of ICAN remains hopeful. “We are optimistic we can convince the nuclear armed countries and their allies to change their minds.”

ICAN’s vision rests on the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which came into force five years ago and now has half the world’s countries on board. Parke points to South Africa as proof that disarmament is possible, recalling how the country dismantled its arsenal in the 1990s under International Atomic Energy Agency’s supervision in a transparent process.

As more countries join the treaty, the diplomatic pressure on nuclear-armed states will grow.

Melissa Parke, ICAN’s Executive Director

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In light of rising awareness about nuclear weapons, Parke emphasised the role of the hibakusha, survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, who began to share their testimonies with the aim to inspire change. Public opinion is slowly shifting: Parke noted that polls show a majority would support abolition if given the chance to vote.

ICAN urges individuals, especially young people, to act. From attending the Hiroshima ICAN Academy, to joining Youth for TPNW, to lobbying local councils through the ICAN Cities Appeal, there are countless ways to get involved. Even pressuring banks and pension funds to divest from nuclear weapons producers can make a difference.

“The threat of nuclear weapons is one of the simpler challenges humanity faces. All it takes is political will,” Parke concluded.

If the political will can be mustered, a world without nuclear weapons is within reach. The question is whether leaders and citizens will act before the clock strikes midnight.

Written by:

Irma Mecele

Contributor

Vilnius, Lithuania

Born in 2009 in London,Uk, Irma studies in Marbella, Spain. She is interested in history, politics, and the environment, and plans to study economics. For Harbingers’ Magazine, she writes about politics, culture and society.

In her free time, Irma plays tennis, piano and other sports like karate and boxing. She also enjoys learning languages, travelling and singing. She is proud of finishing a Columbia University program, completing an internship at the EU and taking part in the ‘Voice Kids of Spain’.

Irma speaks Russian, English, Spanish and studies French and Lithuanian.

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